Buried in Books: the Plight of Indian Student

Its the second week of May and Indian youth is buried neck deep in books, question papers, guides and other preparation material. With the mercury soaring above 40 Centigrade in most parts of the country, frequent power cuts add to his misery. Summer is agonisingly painful for Indian students. Both the weather gods and this country’s recruitment system continue to test his patience ruthlessly. India’s future civil servants, doctors, engineers, software professionals as well as candidates for the university system are all screened in summer. Even entrants to our premier schools are selected in summer. Imagine a student toiling 10-12 hours a day to cram that knowledge which will determine his future. Add a couple of hours to this toil to allow time to commute from home to the preparation centre. All this in boiling heat and a power cut that fails your a.C your fan and your cooler. Drenched in sweat from head to toe, these students continue to vie for their future. Its very important that they compete. For if they fail, they will be labelled as useless creeps, failures or Hindi terms Nikhattu and Nikamma will signify them. Apart from the fear of such dreadful insult, their family pride depends upon them. Parents in India expect their children to perform. They should become doctors, engineers, civil servants or software professionals. Otherwise, they are useless. If they fail, the family is so cross with them that the child feels ashamed of himself. In many cases, and such cases are on the rise, the child attempts suicide. Even if he fails to get a high score for High School, the fear of insult, shame and letting the family down is extremely traumatic. End of winter vacation signals the beginning of this trauma for the Indian youth. It also gongs the end of that priceless winter vacation, which was so hard earned. School exams, High school exams and intermediate exams are all held in March and continue till April. Neither children nor their parents have time to waste during these months. They cannot afford to waste time. Guests are not welcome. People can be cold and quite rude if you attempt to intrude and disturb their preparation for those golden exams, which will determine his life till death. If the student fails to secure above 80% marks at class 10 level, the principal of the school will ask him to leave science and mathematics and chose commerce instead for class 11th and 12th. If he dips below 70%, the choice his humanities and social sciences, which is a taboo in Indian middle class. A child studying merely humanities and social sciences in 11th and 12th classes is a labelled non-starter. Plum careers are out of bound for him. Parents start looking for other options for such kids. He can open a shop, if the family has money. He can be absorbed in family business if any. Else, he can always decorate the growing force of salesman called ‘marketing executives’ very honourably. If he fails to perform in class 12, the child cannot enter a premier college if he fails to enter a premium institution of higher education, his prospects are considerably obliterated. Those who get selected for the various Indian Institutes of Technology after their 10+2 exams are labelled best. Those who make it to the medical college after 12th are considered equally. However, the length of learning required to reach the super speciality stage is so tedious that this career is often termed as number two. After graduation, the choices are management or civil service. Nonconventional careers like catering, interior designing, architecture hotel management still carry a lower appeal in India. We have always nourished a conventional mindset like the British. Thanks to two centuries of colonialism. No child in India can afford laxity on this account. He cannot afford to perform less than his ability. The system is so unkind, so cruel for the young generation that slackness on this count is simply criminal. The system does not offer him alternatives.

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